


Diplomatic Relations

by BlueMinuet



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fictional politics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 10:44:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17579384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMinuet/pseuds/BlueMinuet
Summary: Starscream and Optimus butt heads over politics across several worlds, before finally finding something more useful to do.





	Diplomatic Relations

**Author's Note:**

> A commission for [@roboapollo](https://twitter.com/roboapollo) on twitter. 
> 
> Hope you like it~

Optimus was surprised to see Starscream slip out to the balcony, and Starscream seemed disgusted in equal measure to see Optimus already there. The leader of Cybertron seemed ready to retreat, before scoffing, changing his mind, and leaning out on the balcony railing. Optimus swirled his drink, trying to think of something to say. 

It was Optimus’s first official political function on Caminus, and Starscream had been insufferable since the Mistress of Flame had barged in, insisting that Optimus must also be present. Optimus wasn’t sure how much could really be done to fix that, Starscream being who he was. 

Before he could think of anything to say, Starscream sighed loudly before sipping his drink. It was much fancier than the simple fare that Optimus gravitated towards, and not quite like any mixed drink he’d ever seen in a Cybertronian bar. 

“Why are you out here?” Starscream asked without preamble, in between sips. “They can’t get enough of you, back there.” 

Optimus considered that a moment. “I suppose that’s why I’m out here instead.” He took a sip of his drink as well, and when he looked back over, Starscream was staring at him. Not quite glaring, though it was a near thing. 

“I’ll never understand you,” Starscream said. “You’re a leader that hates leading.” 

“I’m not sure I would put it so strongly,” Optimus said. 

Starscream huffed. “You gave up your leadership on Earth. And again as soon as the Autobots got back to Cybertron. Then you keep coming back and taking it again.” He gave Optimus a sidelong glance as he paused to sip his drink. “So, what’s the point? Why not just take control and keep it?” 

“Those were all different situations.” 

“Were they really?” It was phrased like a question, but Optimus knew far better than to take the bait, especially with Starscream shooting him such a sharp look. 

“I’m not trying to take control from you, Starscream.” 

To that he only laughed, hard enough that his drink bounced along with his frame. “Honestly, it’s amazing you kept your forces together as long as you did, if that’s as well as you can lie.” 

It was Optimus’s turn to glare. 

Starscream simply shrugged. “What do you call this, then?” he asked, sweeping a hand back towards the gathering indoors. “You ingratiate yourself with the Mistress of Flame to… what, exactly? If it’s not a power play?” 

Optimus frowned. “Did you really come out here to start a fight with me? Or are you just mad I interrupted your sulking?”

“I’m not sulking,” Starscream said, wings fluttering testily. “I’m taking stock. You do that often enough, don’t you?”

Optimus fought the urge to roll his eyes. Instead he looked out at the view. Caminus ran darker at night than Cybertron did, with little energy to spare and no moon to speak of. Small safety lights dotted paths here and there, and the stars shone bright with no other light sources to complete with. Optimus found his gaze continually — unwillingly — drawn back to Starscream’s flicking wings, which seemed to catch every droplet of starlight available on their buffed angles. 

“You’ve put me in a difficult enough position, afterall,” Starscream said, reminding Optimus that he had been quiet for far too long. He turned his attention back Starscream’s face, and his self-satisfied smirk seemed to indicate that he had noticed where Optimus’s thoughtful gaze had taken him. “It’s hard to be a good leader when your power is split with some boasting religious figurehead.”

Optimus tried his best not to rise to that. “A truly good leader would work even better with checks and balances.”

“Oh, is that how you’ve decided to rationalize it to yourself?” Starscream was still smirking as he took a long sip from his glass, leaning back against the railing. “How did checks and balances work for your command structure then?”

Optimus glared, and only got more angry as that provoked a chuckle from Starscream. 

“I thought so,” he said, before gulping down the last dregs of his drink.  
  


* * *

  
Starscream looked up with a bit of surprise as a drink clinked right beside his audial. He followed the arm up farther before getting up to Optimus’s face, which he frowned at. The more of these functions he went to, the more he was seeing of that bare face, battle mask snapped back during quiet moments when no one expected much of him so that he could drink in peace. 

Maybe the fact that those moments were happening more and more around Starscream was something of a sign of trust between them. 

Either way, Starscream sneered at him, and took the drink. 

Even in the private box, the sounds of roaring engines still permeated through the walls, both from the racers and the cheering crowd of Velocitronians. The leaders had insisted on watching the race before they could talk actual politics, and Starscream had not quite agreed, so much as simply decided that it was beneath his dignity to argue with. He sipped his drink — privately thinking what revolting swill they made on Velocitron, everything optimized for performance over pleasure — and simply waited for things to be done. 

Optimus did not seem so inclined to quietly bare with it. “Something about Velocitron has always rubbed me the wrong way,” he said, just loud of enough of a whisper to be heard over the pervasive engine roar. 

Starscream responded by way of rolling his optics back into his helm. 

“What?” Optimus asked. Starscream almost wondered if there was a note of exasperation there, but he would only be so lucky to rattle the prime enough to be rewarded with that. 

“Of course you would say it like that,” Starscream replied, after sipping more of the fuel-efficient sludge. “It’s not exactly a secret that something is rotten on Velocitron, now is it?” 

He nodded out to the race to punctuate his point. He couldn’t remember if this one was technically a political election, or just a run-of-the-mill race to gain some sort of favor. Surely someone had told him as much when he arrived, but Starscream didn’t care. They all blended together. 

“It reminds me of the old times, before the war,” Optimus said. “It’s not exactly far off from functionalism, is it?” 

Starscream rolled his eyes again. “You can’t really be serious.” 

Optimus gave him a look. If he had his mask on, it may have been intimidating. Maybe it still would have been, to anyone else, but Starscream could see the confusion through all else, with tinges of annoyance at being spoken to in such a way that none of his rank and file would have ever dared. 

“Just because their society is bad doesn’t mean it’s functionalist,” Starscream said, sipping loudly. “You can’t just throw that word around anytime you don’t like something.” 

“Surely you can’t agree this is a valid method of choosing political leaders,” Optimus mumbled. “Or are you still loyal to the Decepticon idea of proving worth through might?” 

“Don’t preach at me again,” Starscream muttered. “And I don’t have to like it. I’m not the king of Velocitron, after all. And I believe it’s more important for our colonies to have good relations with us than to nitpick their lifestyles.” 

“Because you want them on your side when debates come to the floor.” 

“Because I don’t want another civil war,” Starscream corrected. “We tried that already, remember?” 

When he looked over, Optimus was staring at him again. 

“What?” Starscream asked, flashing him a wicked grin. “Surprised that a Decepticon can believe in diplomacy?” 

Optimus looked away from him, back at the race. Starscream laughed into his awful drink in victory.  
  


* * *

  
Starscream squinted under the harsh sunlight of Eukaris. His meeting here was at recess for the next few hours, and at the bidding of Tigatron, Starscream had agreed to go explore and get a better feel for the city. If it could be called that, Starscream thought wryly as he meandered through the wide dirt roads. 

He’d much preferred the cliffside home of the cloud walkers to this. He supposed it made sense that the main city of the fur walkers had dirt roads, optimized for those with paws to run comfortably across, but Starscream would be glad to escape so he could fish the dust out of his thrusters. Perhaps this was why the cloud walkers hated visiting the turfer cities as well… Starscream couldn’t help but smirk as he thought about the possibility of complaining about it with Sonar later, another excuse to bond a little with a potential political ally. 

He rounded the corner, intent to find somewhere more sparse, before nearly walking straight into Optimus’s windshield. 

He stopped just short, and glowered at his own reflection. 

“There you are,” Optimus said, looking down. 

“Don’t tell me that you’re intent on even haunting my breaks,” Starscream said, rolling his eyes. “What would you like me to prove you wrong about now?”

“I believe I’m all set on having my worldviews challenged for today,” Optimus said, only provoking more exasperation from Starscream. “I got you this.”

Starscream couldn’t hold back his surprise as Optimus held out a small box. He gave it a dubious look, and didn’t take it. “What is this?”

“It’s called a gift.”

Starscream’s glare deepend into a scowl. He was certain that if Optimus’s face wasn’t hidden behind his battle mask, he would be grinning. 

“It’s a thank you,” Optimus said. “For putting up with my, well… obstinance.” At Starscream’s confused expression, he continued. “I admit that I am not used to others challenging me. And when they do, I often do not take their criticisms in the best way.” 

Starscream still stared at him, and made no move to take the gift. “You’re thanking me for ripping into you?”

“I suppose you could put it that way,” Optimus said. “I decided that you’re right. I’ve spent far too much time simply dictating orders, and not enough listening to the concerns around me.” He held out the gift again, gently jabbing it in Starscream’s direction. “So please… keep challenging me. And perhaps, for once, the leadership of Cybertron can be more about collaboration than power plays.”

For once, Starscream was the only left speechless. He took the gift box from Optimus, and watched as the last prime retreated.

Only when he was out of line of sight did Starscream let himself smirk.  
  


* * *

  
Optimus was glad that his battle mask let him hide a smirk when, at the next council meeting, Starscream was wearing the clawed digit extensions that Optimus had bought for him on Eukaris. He tapped them thoughtfully as council members snipped back and forth at each other, voices rising and growing shrill. 

“It’s not a simple issue, to be sure,” Starscream said, coaxing everyone to be quiet with a waving hand. Slowly the arguments died down, soon replaced with half the council simply glaring at Starscream. He was quiet for a beat, before tapping his claws again and locking eyes with Optimus. “You’ve been quiet, Optimus. Do you have any ideas?”

The glares turned slightly bewildered, as everyone began to pick up on the suspicious lack of sarcasm in the interaction. 

“I have some thoughts,” Optimus said. “But if it’s alright, I’d like to ask a few more question of the delegates from the colonies affected. I want to be sure I understand the nuance before I present any proposed solutions.”

Starscream smiled — not smirked or sneered — at him, before leaning back in his chair and gesturing for him to continue. 

Optimus had never seen the delegates so shocked into silence all at once.  
  


* * *

  
“I never did like Earth,” Starscream admitted, perched on a cliffside and watching the sun gently dip towards the surface. 

“Conquerors rarely see the beauty of their targets,” Optimus said, standing on the firmer ground above him. 

Starscream looked up, and didn’t miss the smirk on Optimus’s bare face. He climbed back up to stand next to him. “Are you trying to provoke me? Miss having me rip into you from time to time?”

Optimus gave a considering tilt of his head. “Old habits, I suppose…”

Starscream tipped himself up, as tall as he could raise himself on his pedes to smirk at him, and wave a clawed finger at his face teasingly. “You should look into replacing that habit with something more productive.”

To his surprise, Optimus dipped, ignoring Starscream’s wagging finger and darting to place a kiss on his lips. 

Starscream startled at first, but just as Optimus was about to pull away, surely worried he had gone a step too far, Starscream wrapped an arm around his neck, holding him in place as he fervently returned the kiss. 

Optimus pulled away as much as Starscream’s hold would let him. “Is that a more acceptable habit?”

Starscream smirked. “Hmm, I’m not sure. You might need to try it a few more times for me to know for certain…” 

Optimus huffed, but kissed him again anyway.


End file.
